Word: alyeska
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...incident, senate President Kelly began to draw up plans for what he calls a Spill Response Corps, to be organized by the state but paid for by the oil companies "as part of the cost of doing business here." And Governor Cowper insisted on a credible plan by the Alyeska consortium, which runs the pipeline, to deal with spills: "There's going to have to be a plan that satisfies our specialists. And if it is not complied with, we don't have any remedy except to shut down the pipeline terminal ((at Valdez...
...Alyeska nonetheless boasted that it would have equipment on the scene of any major spill within five hours. When the unthinkable happened, the reality was somewhat different: the first crews and equipment did not get to the spill until ten hours after the accident. And then they could do little because booms to contain the oil and mechanical skimmers to scoop it up were pitifully insufficient. Moreover, the barge capable of receiving the skimmed oil had been damaged and could not be deployed until the next...
What was the hang-up? In a word, says an Alyeska supervisor, "complacency." Lulled by almost twelve years of oil shipping through Valdez without a major accident, Alyeska let its old equipment run down to the point that it was taxed to the limit when it cleaned up a small spill of a mere 1,500 bbl. in January. Workers who had been hired to devote full time to combatting oil spills were replaced by people whose primary duties lay elsewhere. The state government failed to keep Alyeska up to the mark; the legislature denied its watchdog agency funds...
...Wednesday Exxon spokesman Donald Cornett admitted that beach cleanup had not started and that one boat had just sailed around gauging the extent of the spill. Later that night he was greeted in nearby Cordova by citizens displaying signs that read, DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR. ESPECIALLY AT ALYESKA AND EXXON PRESS CONFERENCES...
...pipeline law limits a company's liability to $100 million in most cases, that lid is off if a spill and the damage that results are due to negligence. A court may find that the actions of Captain Hazelwood and Third Mate Cousins -- and the failure of both Alyeska and Exxon | to respond quickly to the spill -- meet that test. Both the state of Alaska and the Federal Government have opened criminal investigations of the spill. "It will be a long war of experts," says James McNerney, a Houston specialist in environmental and maritime law. The battle over this spill...